Urinary incontinence is the loss of bladder control. While for some individuals, it is possible to reduce or stop urinary incontinence, for others it is a problem that cannot be prevented, particularly for the aged, infirm, and others who live in a long-term care setting. For patients or residents (hereafter, “patients”) who are incontinent, one of the ways to provide comfort is to ensure that their briefs or diapers (hereafter, “briefs”) are regularly changed following a void event. In this sense, a void event is one marked by wetness of the brief, which can be either due to urine, diarrhea, or loose stool.
A degree of urinary incontinence affects a high percentage of nursing home residents in the United States, which some have estimated at about 60%. Risk factors include impaired ambulation and immobility, physiological changes of the genitourinary system associated with aging, decreased capacity to hold urine due to reduced bladder size, reduced effectiveness of the kidneys, atrophy of pelvic and sphincter muscles resulting in an increased urgency to empty the bladder, and functional impairments such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Moreover, patients are at greater risk to develop incontinence by having to wear a wet or a soiled brief for an extended period of time, without timely changing of the brief after a void event.
The effects of urinary incontinence are often significant. Besides issues of discomfort and dignity, the condition is causally related to urinary tract infections, which are the most common infection found in the nursing homes. A soiled or wet brief for a prolonged period of time increases the chances of developing a urinary tract infection. The longer a wet or soiled brief is worn, the longer bacteria will multiply and increase the severity of a urinary tract infection. On the other hand, it is possible to restore some degree of continence to many patients by consistently changing his or her brief within a short time of a void event, and having the knowledge of when such an event is likely to occur will facilitate that effort. Success in this area will result in tremendous savings by reducing the number of incontinent patients, reducing the severity of incontinence in certain individuals, and reducing the incidence of urinary tract infections.
Accordingly, a change in practice that results in more timely changes would reduce the extent of incontinence-related problems in long term care. Current practice in the industry is to change the briefs of incontinent patients based on a time schedule. However, this practice has substantial limitations, mainly in the sense of a lack of information about the specific patient and his or her void status at any particular time. The management of brief changes based on a time schedule is largely guesswork, while basing it on patient notification or caregiver inspection is not consistently timely or reliable. Thus, there is a need for providing real-time information to caregivers regarding when a void occurs, so they can respond quickly to change the person's brief and reduce the amount of time that one spends wearing a wet or soiled brief. Further, realizing that an incontinent person has his or her brief changed numerous times during the day, it is important that the source of the real-time information should be either inexpensive (if it is discarded with the wet or soiled brief) and/or reusable so that it can interface with the clean brief the person wears after changing. As seen in the further teachings below, present embodiments contain elements of both reusable components as well as inexpensive sensors that can be discarded with a soiled brief upon changing.